Acts 1:15-17, 21-26, Psalm 1, 1
John 5:9-13, John 17:6-19, Leonard Cohen
Testimony, testify… When I hear these words I think of
courtrooms where lawyers try to convince a jury of guilt or innocence. Before
someone testifies, they swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth. Then they are cross examined to make sure that their story stays
the same… to make sure they are telling the truth as a witness.
Testimony, testify… When I hear these words I think of
personal stories of faith being shared. A friend sharing about how they have
experienced God in their lives. Or the knock at your door, when you answer you
are greeted by someone wearing a name tag asking if you have accepted Jesus as
your Lord and Savior.
At the heart of testimony is truth; truth that is
questioned, truth that is convincing, and truth that is personal. This is what
our reading from the First Letter of John is all about; the truth that God
gives us is eternal life through his Son. This is the truth that we celebrate
every week when we meet in this place and share a meal at this table. Each of us has taken a different road
to arrive at this truth; a different pathway that led us here today. For me it began with questioning the
truth that was instilled in me since birth.
The most life changing thing I have ever done in my life was
joining the Episcopal Church. I grew up in a Mexican and Polish, Roman Catholic
family. This meant that being Roman Catholic wasn’t just something we did on
Sunday, it was our culture. My mother played violin at church, my father taught
adult confirmation classes, my grandmother made sure we prayed the rosary and
went to confession weekly. There were seasons in my family where our parents
didn’t go to church very often but the church was always a part of our home,
candles were lit in front of saints and pictures of the dead. I tell you all of
this because my family’s devotion to the Roman Catholic Church is what made
leaving that church so difficult.
Most of my friends from high school went to Catholic
Universities so when I got to college, I went to the Catholic Newman Center by
myself. I also went to the Episcopal Canterbury Club with a friend. What I
found in those first few weeks of college changed my life. At the Newman Center
I felt like one of many – never to be noticed if I was there or not, if I was
struggling with classes or being away from my family. At the Canterbury Club I felt like an individual – the
chaplain or others in the group called me if I missed a gathering, we all
shared about missing our families and the stress of becoming a grown up.
As my
freshman year progressed, I was spending more and more time at the Canterbury
Club and stopped attending Roman Catholic services. I didn’t tell my parents
that I wanted to officially join the Episcopal Church. I was scared; I didn’t
want them to think I was rejecting our family’s way of life.
During my sophomore year of college, the chaplain of the
Canterbury Club went on medical leave and all of the students had to take on
leadership roles. I became the treasure and represented the students to the
board who oversaw the Episcopal Campus ministry. It was during this time that I
began to feel called to the priesthood. The campus ministry and a few priests
in the area helped me learn how to hear God’s call to me; a call I heard
through the community and through the words and prayers in the Book of Common
Prayer.
Then came the hardest part… I had to tell my family. I had
to tell them that I was going to leave the church that they loved so much, the
church that I had loved so much… AND that I felt called to become a priest in
my new church. I was so afraid of what they might say or how it might make them
feel. By the grace of God, my parents understood my decision. Of course they
didn’t want me to leave the Catholic Church, but they understood that following
God’s call for me was much more important than being a specific denomination.
They listened and loved me enough to hear that in order to be my truest self, I
was joining the Episcopal Church.
It was not easy to go against my family traditions but my pursuit of the
truth meant that I needed to go beyond those traditions so that I could follow
where God was leading me.
My
testimony is one of thankfulness and praise to God.
Tonight we will sing Halleluiah, definitely Leonard Cohen’s
most popular song. It is a song that is a kind of signature hymn of praise for
what we do on Saturday nights here.
Its a blending of the biblical, the orthodox, a deep vulnerability and
openness to the idea that God’s praises can be sung and his voice
heard--through the edgy lyrics that no conventional hymn writer would dare to
write, but we all certainly feel.
Though he wrote it in 1984, Cohen’s Halleluiah has remained
a popular song because of its dangerous depth; its erotic and melancholic
energy. That is why there are so many different versions performed by so many
different artists of the song. The lyrics describe different types of
halleluiah’s, the Hebrew word for praises, that can be heard… King David
looking at Bathsheba, Delilah cutting off Samson’s hair, awe and praise, a holy
and a broken halleluiah. And even though most of the lyrics stay the same each
time it is performed, Cohen has created a song that changes with each
performance. Cohen's lyrics and his view that "many different hallelujahs
exist" is reflected in the many covers with very different intents or
tones, allowing the song to be "melancholic, fragile, uplifting or
joyous" depending on the performer.[1] Each
singer shares their unique Halleluiah while using his words.
We all have a story to share, an experience of the truth of
God that has formed our lives.
Each of us has a unique relationship with God because we are each
different. We use our own life,
our own halleluiah to help us understand the world around us and grow closer to
God. So, what halleluiah is being
called from your lips?
What testimony do you have to share?
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